Philosophy in Life

[Claudius Gothicus]

Personally I've been feeling kinda pessimistic on such things as individual purpose, meaning of existence, pursuit of personal desires, breaking the routine, purpose in socializing and the burden that it carries.
I tried to read Nietzsche to cheer me up a little bit but I couldn't continue due to University and it's demands.

So right now all my readings have to do with economics, politics, society and culture(I'm a sociology student) which are quite ''abstract'' to everyday life and the hows to carry on with it. I'm not in a depressive state before you start asking, I socialize with my friends, I have a girlfriend and have a good relationship with my family.

It's just that the time that I have left after studying is a time that I usually spend alone and lately I started to wonder about all these things that can be resumed in a simple statement ''what the hell I'm I going to do with my life and how do I give it some purpose?''

So, the purpose of this thread is to discuss the ways to actually try and give ourselves some meaning in our lives without getting religious(which is BS).

[messiah]

I believe life has no meaning. Just look at your life. You are born, you study, study more, work and die. That's it. Same for everybody else, unless we're discussing bums. Your life is irrelavant to the universe just like the life of a bug is irrelavent to you. Sure, you may change the lives of someone, for example, by creating a new branch of philosophy, but all it does is give a new meaning to life to (most of them) some little, worthless human being who won't accomplish anything much in his life, like me.

Call me a pessimist, a nihilist or an idiot I don't care - that's what I believe and since there is no one definite answer, I may chose the one which is most comforting.

"We are selfish, base animals crawling across the Earth. Because we got brains, we try real hard, and we occasionally aspire to something that is less than pure evil." Gregory House, House MD. Yeah, I know it's a TV show, but I like it.

[Marie Louise von Preussen]

Evil is an arbitrary standard. How many times I said that? Oh!

You're applying a moralistic judgment on your world view.

[messiah]

Or maybe it was "... pure ego."? Can't remember.

[Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh]

Sorry, I'm just popping in to say I like the, "I tried to read Nietzsche to cheer me up" Hahaha. Nice tactic.

But on a serious note Claudius, I empathise a great deal with you. The philosophy and texts I like to read could be almost called practical philosophy, but, as you say, these topics are detached from the way we as a general view the world on a day to day basis. These philosophies are still pertinent, to the 'running' of the country, to give us an understanding of the how the world works; however it has very little effect on what the french call the métro-boulot-dodo (metro-work-sleep).

I completely get why you feel pessimistic, or at least I think I do. My only real suggestion would be to pursue a life-style where you do bring this knowledge into work. For instance, I study economics and will later go on to do Developmental studies and/or Urban Planning, and to me, I'd like to bring in what I know on sociology, economics and political philosophy, into my work.

The other outlet for your philsophoes is creative writing. Be as esoteric as you want, and it'll seem like you are a really intelligent person.

[vecordia]

Personally I've been feeling kinda pessimistic on such things as individual purpose, meaning of existence, pursuit of personal desires, breaking the routine, purpose in socializing and the burden that it carries.
I tried to read Nietzsche to cheer me up a little bit but I couldn't continue due to University and it's demands.

So right now all my readings have to do with economics, politics, society and culture(I'm a sociology student) which are quite ''abstract'' to everyday life and the hows to carry on with it. I'm not in a depressive state before you start asking, I socialize with my friends, I have a girlfriend and have a good relationship with my family.

It's just that the time that I have left after studying is a time that I usually spend alone and lately I started to wonder about all these things that can be resumed in a simple statement ''what the hell I'm I going to do with my life and how do I give it some purpose?''

So, the purpose of this thread is to discuss the ways to actually try and give ourselves some meaning in our lives without getting religious(which is BS).

You simply must think about your own ego, it's your priority existential task.

I believe life has no meaning. Just look at your life. You are born, you study, study more, work and die. That's it. Same for everybody else, unless we're discussing bums. Your life is irrelavant to the universe just like the life of a bug is irrelavent to you. Sure, you may change the lives of someone, for example, by creating a new branch of philosophy, but all it does is give a new meaning to life to (most of them) some little, worthless human being who won't accomplish anything much in his life, like me.
Call me a pessimist, a nihilist or an idiot I don't care - that's what I believe and since there is no one definite answer, I may chose the one which is most comforting.

Classic nihilism, although I have similar senses.

"We are selfish, base animals crawling across the Earth. Because we got brains, we try real hard, and we occasionally aspire to something that is less than pure evil." Gregory House, House MD. Yeah, I know it's a TV show, but I like it.

When the scenarists put those words into H. Laurie's mouth they surely wanted it to sound ironic by makig evil so influential, which it really isn't.

As we are clearly evolving in life-philosophy, also progressing to more advanced points of view, we simultaneously playing with both ->> nihilism and its opposites .

From the different kind, you could examine yourself as immanent sphere creating some immanent opinions such as "life has no meaning", or establish this statement as purely transcendent, therefore ->> unknowable.
No special difference what would you choose to believe, cause both can exist as the "master:slave" relation, alternately.

Some motions:
Taking any action on the metaphysical grounds could result as a lightly [fresh] forms of ourselfs views on ourself essence or ->>> very complicated multiplying cobweb of non effective answers, outcomes, going tirelessly nowhere.

[Kjertesvein]

Personally I've been feeling kinda pessimistic on such things as individual purpose, meaning of existence, pursuit of personal desires, breaking the routine, purpose in socializing and the burden that it carries.
I tried to read Nietzsche to cheer me up a little bit but I couldn't continue due to University and it's demands.

So right now all my readings have to do with economics, politics, society and culture(I'm a sociology student) which are quite ''abstract'' to everyday life and the hows to carry on with it. I'm not in a depressive state before you start asking, I socialize with my friends, I have a girlfriend and have a good relationship with my family.

It's just that the time that I have left after studying is a time that I usually spend alone and lately I started to wonder about all these things that can be resumed in a simple statement ''what the hell I'm I going to do with my life and how do I give it some purpose?''

So, the purpose of this thread is to discuss the ways to actually try and give ourselves some meaning in our lives without getting religious(which is BS).

I think this guy covers several fields pretty well:

Basially:

1. Reason (learn, study, etc. ethical/virtues manner)
2. Virtue (Act in a virtues manner, use it)
3. Become happy

He relates it with exerise:

1. Learn how to work out.
2. Work out/practise.
3. Become fit.

Obvious, but it's just a series of reminders if your brain starts to take a random walk down a road. Also more like perfectionism, pluss, more +++++

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I must note that I envy your politically abstract position tho. Too bad I missed out on that in my early days. Is it interesting?

~Wille

[Armatus]

[Elfdude]

I personally subscribe to my personal philosophy. The ultimate goal of it are progress towards the elimination of misery as we know it. The central idea is that cooperation results in exponentially successful endevors. If you can do something with one person with two people (ignoring breaks in communication) you can achieve greater success with less overall effort. Similarly by focusing on cooperation mood and charity become important. Improving someone's mood will result in them performing more good actions and dealing with other people in a more positive way which in turn improves their moods. Through this mechanism (identified by science) goodness can be spread through a population like a disease. The second aspect focuses on discovery to solve the problems we can't right now. Essentially it views ignorance as a perversion which is a necessary evil as we currently are but is something we should always attempt to eliminate.

There's more expanded information in my signature.

[WelshDragon]

I've tried every philosophy out at least once... and the best one is the one that workd for YOU!

I've adopted what I call a modified objectivist personal philosophy tinged with existentialism... Life, our lives, ultimately hold no innate meaning in the grand scheme of things. But existence is the best teacher as they say, and we can know some things! And one of those empiricle "truths" is that man does need something that drives him, that sustains his soul, or else he will fall into decay. Whether that is a job, a family, art, music, whatever it is for each of us, we NEED to find that thing which give us our own meaning. And once we find it, we must strive to perfect ourselves throught that thing, pursuing it to the bounds of our abilities.

Not very elloquent, but I'm tired from working a job all day that is NOT my reason for being